55: A man's natural disaster

When Lin Mo's consciousness gently tapped the icon, wreathed in endless dark green runes, on the skill bar visible only to him, the entire world seemed to be drained of all sound.

[Toxic Domain]! Activate!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no world-destroying roar.

Everything happened silently, yet with a bizarre terror that froze the soul.

Centered on Lin Mo's body, a nearly transparent ripple, barely visible to the naked eye, spread outward in all directions, like the wake of a stone dropped into a calm lake.

The speed of this ripple surpassed thought!

In an instant, it swept past the mountainous body of Abyssal Lord Mephistopheles, crossed the massive vacuum zone cleared by [Destruction Aura], and then... mercilessly crashed into the hundreds of thousands of stunned players on the periphery!

Buzz— A deep hum, seemingly originating from the netherworld, simultaneously resonated in the hearts of all players struck by the ripple.

Immediately following, a scene that made everyone's scalp crawl occurred.

Wherever the transparent ripple passed, the space seemed to be stained, and a thin layer of ominous, dark green mist materialized out of thin air!

This mist continuously surged, rose, and converged. In just two or three seconds, a massive, dark green, hemispherical canopy with a terrifying diameter of a thousand yards violently took shape, completely enveloping the entire core battlefield area along with nearly half of the player army!

Viewed from above, it resembled a gigantic abscess covered in poisonous moss, slowly pulsating over the Wailing Plains.

"What... what is this thing?"

"Whose skill is this? The range is too huge!"

"I feel... I feel like it's hard to breathe..."

Inside the Domain, countless players looked suspiciously at the bizarre poisonous mist that had suddenly appeared, momentarily forgetting to attack the BOSS.

However, the next second, panic replaced all confusion.

[-500!] [-500!] [-500!]... A series of steady, continuous damage numbers began to float uniformly above the heads of all players within the Domain!

"Oh my god! It's an area damage skill! Everyone activate damage reduction!"

"Priest Corps! Cast group Heals! Quickly!"

"Wait! This poison is strange! My movement speed has been reduced!"

The commanders of the major guilds reacted immediately, roaring desperately, trying to stabilize their positions.

However, this was merely the prelude to the "natural disaster."

The true destruction originated from the source of the catastrophe!

"Roar!" Mephitos clearly felt the power of the bone-penetrating Deadly Poison. He became even more enraged, his massive arm wildly swatting at the tiny "ant" on his body, attempting to crush him.

However, Lin Mo, currently within the Domain he personally created, was completely in his element!

His movement speed, evasion rate, and even his neural reaction speed had all received massive boosts!

His figure transformed into nearly uncatchable phantoms on the BOSS's massive body. Every dodge and maneuver precisely avoided fatal attacks, while the [dagger of withering] in his hand, like the tip of the Grim Reaper's pen, added the darkest stroke to the colossal canvas again and again!

[-1! (True Corrosion)]

[Ding! 'Endless Poison Source' current stack count: 2001!]

Just as he completed this attack, the terrifying effect that had just been unlocked and was capable of overturning the entire battle was triggered!

[Plague Link]!

... On the periphery of the battlefield, in the Ba Tian Guild's formation.

An ace player named "Overlord Divine Archer" was looking with relief at the area covered by the poisonous mist in the distance.

"Good thing we stood further back and didn't get sucked in. This skill is too broken; it must be the ultimate move of some hidden class," he said to his teammates while drinking a mana potion.

As one of the highest damage dealers among the Hunters in the guild, he had been placed in an absolutely safe position by Overlord Mad Saber, waiting only for an opportunity to use his ultimate skill, [God Slaying Arrow], to seize ownership of the BOSS.

However, the moment he finished speaking, a sudden change occurred!

He didn't even see the trajectory of an attack or receive any lock-on warning; a thick, dark green color, concentrated to the point of being opaque, erupted on his body without warning!

[-100050! (Deadly Poison)] [-100050! (Deadly Poison)] [-100050! (Deadly Poison)]... In an instant, his health bar plummeted like a waterfall!

"What?!" The relief on Overlord Divine Archer's face instantly froze, replaced by endless horror and confusion. He didn't even have time to react before his vision went black, and he vanished from the spot, turning into a beam of white light.

Instant kill!

A top-tier Hunter, wearing several pieces of high-quality purple gear and possessing nearly thirty thousand HP, was instantly killed in a safe position far from the core of the battlefield!

His teammates around him were dumbfounded.

"Divine Archer... how... how did he die?"

"Who did it?! Was it an assassin from a rival guild?"

"No! There's nothing in the combat log! He... he was poisoned to death!"

Panic, like a giant stone dropped into a calm lake, instantly stirred up a massive wave in the Ba Tian Guild's formation!

And this was only the beginning.

Almost simultaneously, the Chief Mage of [Blazing Throne], the ace Rogue of [Oracle Guild], the MT of [Fengyun Tianxia]... one famous top-tier player after another on the server, no matter where they were or how many defensive skills they had activated, had their health bars instantly emptied by an incomprehensible, terrifying Deadly Poison, without any warning!

Death was equalizing.

In this feast of Wither orchestrated by Lin Mo, there was no distinction between core members and cannon fodder, no difference between front row and back row.

The trigger of [Plague Link] was completely random.

Every time Lin Mo attacked the BOSS, it was like a death lottery, randomly selecting one "lucky winner" from the hundreds of thousands of players enveloped by the Domain, and then instantly presenting them with half of the poison stacks accumulated on Mephitos as a "grand prize"!

What kind of concept was over a thousand stacks of [True Corrosion] Deadly Poison?

It meant over one hundred thousand True Damage per second!

At the current stage, no player could withstand such terrifying damage!

"Report, Guild Leader! Our ace assassin 'Ghost Shadow' was instantly killed!"

"Guild Leader! Seven or eight members of the Mage Corps died inexplicably! The Healers can't keep up!"

"What the hell is this thing?! Our people keep losing health, and then they suddenly drop dead!"

Chaos! Panic! Collapse!

The command channels of the major guilds completely erupted into pandemonium.

Their elite teams, which they were so proud of, were now like lambs awaiting slaughter, precisely targeted and killed one by one by an invisible hand!

The fear brought by this unknown, unstoppable method of death was a hundred times more terrifying than a frontal Charge!

"It's that phantom! It's the phantom causing trouble on the BOSS that did it!"

Overlord Mad Saber watched the constantly darkening avatars of his guild members, his eyes bloodshot. He finally connected that strange "hidden damage" with the bizarre mass death occurring before him!

He finally understood!

From beginning to end, that person's target was not just the BOSS!

All of them, these hundreds of thousands of players, were his prey!

He used the BOSS's massive body as a "poison petri dish," planting the "Source of Plague" capable of destroying the world upon it. Then, through some unknown means, he precisely delivered this deadly plague onto them, the "bystanders"!

How insane! How vicious! How... genius!

"Retreat! Everyone! Immediately pull out of that damned poisonous mist!" Overlord Mad Saber roared desperately.

However, it was already too late.

Under the slowing effect of the [Toxic Domain], the players' movements became incredibly sluggish. Meanwhile, the randomly targeted death sentences never ceased.

The entire battlefield had completely devolved into a living hell.

Countless players scattered like headless flies. They didn't know where the attack was coming from, nor did they know if they would be the next to die. The guild formations had long collapsed, and alliance commands were rendered useless.

The so-called army of hundreds of thousands completely disintegrated before the "natural disaster" caused by Lin Mo alone!

And at this moment, the creator of this natural disaster stood quietly upon the shoulder of Abyssal Lord Mephistopheles.

He had stopped climbing.

Because as the poison stacks continued to soar, Mephitos's movements became increasingly sluggish and powerless. His massive body was being frantically corroded internally by thousands of Deadly Poison stacks, and his HP was plummeting at a visible rate.

Lin Mo looked down from above, his cold gaze, like that of a deity, surveying the Chaos and Wither he had personally created below.

The scattering crowd, the suffering Demon God, and the constantly expanding dark green Domain of Death... all of this formed a magnificent yet terrifying masterpiece belonging solely to the Poison God.

He gently raised his hand, as if embracing his creation, a cold smile curving on his lips.

"Now, who else dares to... contend with me for the prey?"